International Travel to US Declined in 2016

Things have taken a bit of a gloomy turn for the U.S. travel industry.

New numbers released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel & Tourism Office reflect that U.S. welcomed 75.6 million international visitors last year. The number, which clocks in at 2 percent less than 2015, also marks the first time the U.S. has seen its international visitor numbers fall since 2009.

International spending also lagged slightly. Collectively, international travelers spent $244.7 billion across the U.S., a 2.1 percent decrease from 2015. Fortunately, those numbers were salvaged somewhat by a rosy domestic tourism market. Collectively, international and domestic travelers spent more than $990 billion on travel throughout the U.S. last year, an increase of 2.1 percent over the previous year.

Last year’s drop in international travel was fueled, at least in part, by a decrease in visits from Canada, which is the largest inbound market for the U.S. While more than 19 million Canadians visited the U.S. in 2016, that's a 6.8 percent decrease from 2015. The decline that at least partially influenced by the weak Canadian dollar.

Also contributing to last year’s contracting numbers were decreases in visitation from Western Europe (-6.7 percent), South America (-6.2 percent) and Oceania (-6.1 percent). Some of that decline, however, was mitigated by a growth in travel from Asia (4.9 percent) and Mexico (1.9 percent.)

The outlook for 2017 seems slightly more robust, although the Department of Commerce has only released numbers for January 2017 so far.

The decline in Canadian travel seems to be reversing itself, with inbound numbers for January reflecting a healthy 8.7 percent increase over January of 2016. Also, despite predictions that travelers from Mexico might falter after the presidential election, that market saw a 2.4 percent increase in January 2017.

The outlook for overseas travel is less positive, however, with Asia being the only overseas region to reflect an increase (7.1 percent) in January travel.

Other top regions for U.S. travel slipped, including Western Europe (-4.6 percent), South America (-8.5 percent) and Oceania (-5.9 percent.)

Not surprisingly, travel from the Middle East took the biggest dip (by percentage) in January 2017. Likely influenced by uncertainty in the wake of President Trump’s travel ban, inbound numbers from the Middle East tumbled 23.1 percent during the first month of the year.

Tourism is big business for the United States. In 2016, domestic and international travel combined supported nearly 8.6 million U.S. jobs. According to a statistic from the U.S. Travel Association, every $1 million in sales of travel goods and services on average generates nine new jobs.

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